Our Favourite Five Kate Pre-Engagement Looks

Kate has certainly been coming more and more into her own lately, and that transformation began during the pre-engagement days. This post will focus on our favourite five looks from this era.

#5. Laughing at Blenheim Palace, 2004

The Telegraph

From what we can understand, Kate posed for these pictures but was somewhat ‘tricked’ into it, believing they were for a company she was helping at the event (if you have any more information on this, please tell us in the comments!). In any case, she looks happy, vibrant, and very ‘country aristocrat’ with Blenheim palace as a back drop. It reminds us of the pictures of Charles and Diana at Balmoral during their honeymoon decked out in tweed.

It’s also interesting to look at this pic knowing how thin Kate has become lately. She looks very nice and healthy here.

Kate’s appearance at this wedding was her first since a scandal broke out over her uncle Gary Goldsmith (he had undercover reporters to his home in Ibiza and bragged about his relationship with William and Kate as he cut lines of cocaine). It is also the first time we saw this brocade coat by Jane Troughton. She looks lovely, confident, and stylish here despite it all, though we’re not entirely sure about her choice of hat. We would love have a better view of the dress she is wearing underneath the coat, it looks lovely!

We first saw this delightful coat at the wedding of Camilla Parker Bowles’ daughter Laura’s wedding back in 2006. In turn, Laura’s daughter would be a flower girl at Kate and Williams wedding but we’ll have to discuss that more in a later post.

We think Kate looks fantastic here – fresh and classy. She can also pull off this fun fascinator that might look a little kooky on anyone else. Kate has brought this coat out for Zara and Mike’s wedding, pairing it with a new hat. We believe she is wearing our favourite dress underneath it on both occasions (coming up as favourite #1 below!).

#2 Floaty Green Dress at Polo, 2010

via Zimbio

Kate wore this delightful dress on several occasions in the summer of 2010, at times within days of each other (perhaps a ploy to get the photographers off her trail?). It’s a flattering and pretty dress that could either be dressed up or down. Love how she’s paired it here with such oversized sunglasses, a more fashion forward look than we usually see from Kate. We haven’t been able to identify where this dress is from yet, do sound off in the comments if you know!

#1 Brave Face at a Book Launch Party, May 2007

The Daily Mail

This book launch, for The Young Stalin, took place on May 14, 2007 at Asprey in London. This was well in the thick of Kate and William’s break up. You can see in the picture how sad she looks, like she’s really trying to put on a good show but she’s heartbroken. I really feel for her. Despite the sad face, this dress is my favourite that she’s wore before the engagement and wedding. It is by Collette Dinnigan. She brought it out for other occasions, most recently under her Birger et Mikkelson coat at the wedding of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall in July 2011 and at the wedding of Laura Lopes (Camilla’s daughter) in May 2006 (#3 above). UPDATE – Kate wore another Collette Dinnegan in fall 2010 – click here for more.

Kate clearly loves lace and this dress foreshadowed her choice of wedding gown as well as the lace Erdem dresses she selected for the Canadian tour. I love that she wore it during the break up and then as William’s date in the future. Wish we could tell that sad girl in the picture, “Not to worry. This is ALL going to work out just fine…” Hope we keep seeing this dress along with other pretty lace frocks!

Tell us: did we miss any of your favourite pre-enagement looks? To read more about Kate’s fashion, click on ‘Kate’s Closet’ on the left.